Updated: Apr 3, 2018, 09.26 AM IST

Forest department plans to set up concrete barricades across the city’s thriving tekdis in order to keep away encroachers; plan will be open to citizens’ inputs

Depleting forest cover on the hills and encroachment have been a concern for environmentalists as well as residents. Now, the forest department has decided to tackle the latter by planning to construct walls around tekdis to prevent the unwanted overstepping their boundaries.

The forest department claims that 3,000 hectares have already been encroached and it takes much manpower to reclaim the land which can otherwise be put to better use. A Shreelakshmi, deputy conservator of forests, told Mirror, “Construction of walls is important to ensure that we clearly demarcate the forest area and squatters do not claim the land. Conveniently, the land is encroached by local residents with access being created to the forests from all sides; for us, it’s difficult to ensure that illegal activities do not take place in the forest area.”

Pune Mirror had in the past red-flagged the issue of encroachments in a story titled ‘Forest dept faces uphill task with burgeoning slum’ in 2015, underlining how miscreants had taken over the Warje hill.
The walls will be erected on forest patches in Kothrud, Wanowrie, Panchgaon Parvati and Mafco area on Senapati Bapat Road. Depending upon the availability of funds, the department will proceed with the construction. As of now, the walls will be as high as 4-6ft and in some areas, barbed wire will be used to demarcate the territory. The length of the wall will be decided depending upon the perimeter.

Referencing a recent story published in this newspaper on the forest department knocking down trees to build a compound wall separating the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and ILS Law College, Sushma Date, member of Deccan Gymkhana Parisar, said, “What happened at the ARAI hills was absolutely unacceptable as they had divided a continuous forest into two zones. If this is what they plan to do with the other forest patches as well, then we will oppose it.”

Date can rest her worries for now, as the forest department plans to seek the opinions and sentiments of residents of the city before embarking on the plan. As Shreelakshmi said, “A notice will be put up, calling for objections if any. We will mark the trees before cutting them and will follow the process. Approximately 50-100 exotic trees will be cut for each wall. Also, most of the trees in these forest patches are exotic trees which do not allow any native species to grow around the areas.”

Satyanatrajan, a member of the Area Sabha Association of Pune, is just as concerned about the depleting forest cover around the city and feels that the plantation of exotic trees is a result of negligence as the tree act clearly states the list of trees that have to be planted. “I feel that this concern should have been taken care of beforehand. The move should be thought about thoroughly before going ahead,” he said.

Date however supported the forest department’s anti-encroachment initiative. “It cannot be denied that encroachments do happen on the forest land and such a move is required to combat the practice. So far as the cutting of the trees is considered, if native trees are planted in place of the ones cut down, we support the decision.”

City-based botanist Sachin Punekar feels such a move by the forest department should be welcomed as exotic trees are barely doing any good to the environment. Punekar, who is president of Biospheres, said, “A major part of the green cover in the forest region is of exotic plants because of which the native ones hardly get space to grow. Also, with the upcoming walls, the possibility of encroachments will drop drastically and the green cover will stay intact.”

Several other residents also supported the forest department’s move. Himanshu Kulkarni, a resident who regularly visits Vetal Tekdi, told Mirror, “We have repeatedly seen a lot of encroachment at various forest patches in the city and thus it cannot be denied that a compound wall is needed. In fact, every morning when we visit any of these tekdis, we see alcohol bottles lying there along with cigarette buds. One bit of ash of any these buds can light the entire forest on fire. Since the department is short-staffed, there is little that they can do about it and thus walls will help ensure limited access and one opening to the forest.”

Ravi Purandare, chairman, Green Hills Group, said, “If such a wall is constructed to protect the forests, the human interference will reduce and will be controlled. Locals come in the area and break branches for fire; only because the trees over there are exotic is the reason that they have survived. I think it is important to demarcate the boundaries to ensure that the green cover stays intact.”

Source : Pune Mirror

Link : https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pune/cover-story/hill-locked/articleshow/63586735.cms